Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, Aug 20: Pradesh Congress and other organizations celebrated the 71st birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi across the State today.
While paying tributes to Late Rajiv Gandhi at Srinagar, PCC president GA Mir said that Rajiv Gandhi has taken the prestige of Nation to the new heights. His acumen gave a new direction to country in the field of Education, Science & Technology. Not only this his politeness, political wisdom and love for the Nation helped India to develop, prosper and progress in every field.
He recalled the services rendered by him towards Nation and the development of the people.
PCC chief termed Rajiv Gandhi a man of commitment & conviction, who laid down his life for the integrity of the Nation. Rajiv Gandhi, a guardian of secularism worked tirelessly for betterment and welfare of the people irrespective of caste, colour and creed, he said.
Former PCC chief Peerzada Mohd Syed, former Ministers Taj Mohi-ud-Din & Jugal Kishore, MLC- G N Monga and others also addressed the gathering.
In Jammu, the 71st birth anniversary of former Prime Minister was celebrated by the Congress party at the PCC headquarters, Shahidi Chowk.
The function was presided over by Ghulam Ahmed Mir, PCC president and attended by functionaries and senior leaders of PCC, DCC Jammu, frontal organizations of the party, contesting candidates and district presidents of Jammu Province.
Besides Mr Mir, former ministers Tara Chand (Ex-DyCM), Madan Lal Sharma, Sham Lal Sharma, Mula Ram, Raman Bhalla, Jugal Kishore and others spoke on the occasion and recalled the contributions of Later Rajiv Gandhi for the party and the country.
Mir described Late Gandhi as the architect of Panchayat Raj system in the country. He fulfilled the dreams of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi to devolve powers of planning and development to the grass root institutions of democracy, so that the people shape their own destiny as per their needs. He translated the concept of participatory democracy at the grass root levels.
Prominent among others present on the occasion included, Dharam Pal Sharma, Gurmukh Singh, Suman Bhagat, Kanta Bhan, Ravinder Sharma, Rajnish Sharma, Balwan Singh, Dr Manohar Lal, Yogesh Sawhney, Shah Mohammad Choudhary, Manjit Singh, Manmohan Singh, Vikram Malhotra, Namrata Sharma, Faqir Nath, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan and Mohammad Akram – both MLAs; Prakash Sharma, Subash Gupta, Sain Abdul Rashid, Ashok Gupta, Kuldip Raj Verma, Shiv Dev Singh, Girdhari Lal Chalotra, Balbir Singh, Babu Singh, YV Sharma, Maheshwar Singh, Darshan Raina, Subash Bhagat, Krishan Chand Bhagat, MK Bhardwaj, Indu Pawar, Pranav Shagotra, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Neeraj Kundan, H L Pandita, Ashok Dogra, Hari Singh Chib, Ashwani Puri, Rajni Bala, Vijay Manhas, Shamsher Singh Chib, Shashi Sharma, Pawan Raina, Manjit Singh Jatt, Anuradha Andotra, K S Pathania, Ashok Dubey, Ashok Sharma, Neeraj Gupta and Satish Sharma.
DCC Doda also paid floral tribute to former Prime Minister on his birth anniversary in a function held at Bhaderwah today. DCC president MLC Naresh Kumar Gupta garlanded the portrait of Rajiv Gandhi as a mark of respect followed by floral tribute by other senior leaders, workers and members.
In his brief speech Mr Gupta said that it was Rajiv Gandhi who modified the voting right of the youths from 21 years age to 18 years and developed Information Technology in India. He also referred to the other reforms brought in by the Late leader. The MLC said that Rajiv Gandhi focused on key areas where the nation severely lagged behind. Keeping a long-term vision, Rajiv began preparing the groundwork of a modern India. He became the instrument of the much needed change and directed his efforts towards bringing a digital revolution in the nation.
Those who also spoke on the occasion included Shabir Ahmed Khan, Saleem Wani, Dharampal Dogra, Sanjay Manhas, Santh Ram Shaan, Sajid Wani, Biharai Lal, Kulbhushan Kotwal, Mohd Ashraf Butt, Quyoom Khan, Shiv Kumar Kotwal and others.
The 71st Birth anniversary of Late Rajiv Gandhi was celebrated by the Congress Party at Kishtwar. Paying floral tributes to former Prime Minister, the PCC vice president G M Saroori said that Rajiv Gandhi was visionary leader of 21th century who brought about technological and IT revolution in India.
“It was during his tenure as Prime Minister that the foundation of Information Technology sector was laid in the country. Today India is major contributor in IT sector with a huge army of IT professional’s world over” Saroori said. He exhorted upon the youth to strive for achieving excellence in fields like IT which has huge demand in the world job market.
Senior leaders Ghulam Haider Sheikh, Mushtaq Ahmed Hap, Mohd Aslam Malik, Mahinder Singh Parihar, Chowdhary Issaq and Altaf Hussain also spoke on the occasion.
At Batote, Youth Congress leader from Ramban Shahrukh Bhatti and his team paid floral tribute to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary in a function held today. They garlanded the portrait of Rajiv Gandhi as a mark of respect followed by floral tributes by all.
Prof Bhim Singh while paying homage to Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary remembered the former Prime Minister of India.
“He was a wonderful person who had malice to none. He was victim of CIA conspiracy who understood his sentiments as a nationalist when he visited Whitehouse and fired back to a question of a so-called pro-Khalistani, Amercian journalist, that those who are supporting Khalistan should not forget that capital of Khalistan was in Lahore, now in Pakistan”.
This statement by the youthful Indian Prime Minister was not taken well by the CIA and American lobby who were supporting the creation of Khalistan by destabilizing India. They realized that Rajiv Gandhi is no less nationalist than Indira Gandhi. The US hawks lobby could not digest Rajiv Gandhi’s reaction to Khalistan. Bhim Singh remembered that when he met Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in 1992 in Tunis, Arafat told him that he had warned Rajiv Gandhi about conspiracy to liquidate him. NPP leader also recalled his contributions for the country.
Senior Congress leaders including Janak Raj Gupta ( Ex-MP), Th Hari Singh, Jagdish Sapolia and Ashok Sharma today paid visit to Old Age Home Amphalla and distributed fruits and eatables among the inmates, in connection with the birth anniversary of Late Rajiv Gandhi. They also paid tributes to the great leader.
Congress party organised a function in this connection at Udhampur under the leadership of Sumeet Magotra and paid tributes to Late Rajiv Gandhi.
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